Many more women choose gun control over abortion as a key issue in deciding who they
will vote for in this year's presidential race, reveals a Gallup Organization survey taken
for Women.com.

Results of the national

I carry a gun for protection.
I am very concerned about the government trying to keep me from having one. I took gun
courses and have a permit to carry in my state. I will never support anyone who does not
stand up for my Second Amendment rights.
-- Debra Lane, Louisiana

Gallup telephone survey also exposed a gaping gender gap on gun control. While a
majority among both sexes continue to think laws governing firearms sales should be
stricter, an overwhelming 72 percent of women want to tighten laws, compared with a more
modest 52 percent of men. The gender gap loomed again in questions about toy guns, in
which an eye-catching majority of women advocate cracking down on the use of toy guns
among children, in strong contrast to men surveyed.

Asked whether they would or did let their kids play with toy guns, 62 percent of women
said no, compared with 40 percent of men. Both sexes favor laws banning toy guns designed
to look like real guns, particularly women, with 76 percent approving the ban. Among men,
63 percent support the ban.

Eight percent of men, wanted gun laws to be made less strict, compared with 2 percent
of women, while 39 percent of men and 24 percent of women thought laws should be kept as
they are now.

Both women and men deemed gun control a

Every single day, American
men, women and children die senselessly at the end of a barrel. That we spend so much time
arguing over such an obvious error in policy, when brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers,
sons and daughters are being killed and maimed, is a travesty.
-- Katrina Taylor, Washington, D.C.

more important issue than abortion by significant margins in the May 2000 telephone
survey of 1,031 adults nationwide. When asked whether a candidate's position on gun
control or abortion is likely to be more important in determining their votes for
president this year, 51 percent of women picked gun control vs. 31 percent who cited
abortion. The margin among men was wider - 55 percent for gun control versus 24 percent
for abortion.

"The gender gap on gun issues is very consistent in polls," observed Million
Mom March spokeswoman Beth Kotkin in response to the survey results. "There's
something about our culture that creates a strong association between guns and
masculinity."

John Velleco, spokesman for the organization Gun Owners of America, offered a similar
interpretation of the gender gap: "Women, on the whole, are less familiar with guns.

"I think women have been lied to," he added. "They've been fed this line
that if we support gun control it's going to make their kids safer. But background checks
and restrictions on private sales aren't going to make kids any safer. Trigger locks will
place kids in greater danger when the mother who needs to protect herself and her family
doesn't have access to her gun."

Despite the strong opinions, very few survey respondents had any personal experience
with firearms used in a criminal situation. Nine percent of men and 5 percent of women
reported having brandished or fired a gun in self-defense outside military combat.
Eighteen percent of men and 10 percent of women had been threatened with a gun in a
criminal situation.

The survey asked respondents to indicate how far they want the next president to go in
strengthening gun laws in a series of questions ranging from new gun-control legislation,
to enforcement of current laws, or some combination of both. Respondents could choose all
of the above, and a majority of women did so: 66 percent advocate new laws, 57 percent
want stricter enforcement of existing laws. Only half the men surveyed favored new laws,
while 60 percent preferred stronger enforcement of existing laws.

Supporting new laws, the Gallup analysis noted, "might be described as the [Vice
President Al] Gore position." Emphasizing stricter enforcement of existing laws, the
analysis added, "would be more in line with the views of [Governor] George W.
Bush."

"What this seeming conflict in views seems to be telling us," the Gallup
analysis reported, "is that Americans find a strong stand against gun crimes
appealing, regardless of the approach.

"This applies to both men and women, and among women, to mothers and non-mothers
alike," the Gallup report concluded.